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The other day, I was wandering what ever happened to Busta Rhymes and the Flipmode squad. The music and the visuals that went along with the Busta songs were one of the most innovative and creative things to come out of hip hop. Then it seem that Busta disappeared from the scene, with the exceptions of a few guest appearances.

Then this past May, come to find out that Busta Rhyme separated from his label Universal Motwown. Then just a few days ago, he announce a 4-record deal with the label Cash Money (same label as Lil Wayne). However, that is not the main story. Busta Rhymes also announced a special partnership with the newly launched Google Music. The deal with Google Music is a one-off digital distribution deal for his forthcoming album E.L.E. 2: End of the World, which is due first quarter of 2012.

With 20 years of experience in the industry, Busta forged the unorthodox deal because of the "newness" and "freshness" that Google Music is bringing to both the digital realm and traditional distribution model. "The climate continues to shift in music and this business, and we always look for new ways to go about being swift and changeable, but being always remainable," he says. "I come from pre-Internet -- not trying to sound like a dinosaur, but the success of [our records] wasn't always determined by how much it spun on the radio. The people are tastemakers, as opposed to politics and budgets and marketing funds and things of that nature. This situation embodies all of that. You have that outlet of 100 million, 200 million Android phones, YouTube, Google itself and every other medium that comes as a perk with the situation. It exposes your music."

Bonus: Watch Busta and Q-Tip talk about the song and video for "Scenario."

Today, we had the pleasure of talking to Minneapolis band Hippo Campus, plus Moon Taxi and Django Django.
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